Ted Cruz raises eyebrows with Cornyn snub during New Hampshire visit

DUBLIN, N.H. — The view of New Hampshire’s verdant mountains goes on for miles from the hilltop home where Granite State Republicans gathered Friday night for locally grown wine, canapés, and an early glimpse at Sen. Ted Cruz.

Cruz deemed the vista so exquisite, he could almost see Canada, 200 miles away.

But the view wasn’t the most stunning element of the evening.

That was when Cruz dropped the bombshell that he won’t urge Texas Republicans to re-elect Sen. John Cornyn, the party’s No. 2 leader in the Senate. Not that he had a single harsh word to say about his fellow Texan. Just that — on principle — he’s more comfortable leaving it to “the people” to pass judgment when the primary comes around early next year.

“I trust the people,” he said.

Those would be the same people whose anger Cruz has spent the month stoking, at a series of tea party town halls aimed at building pressure on Congress to defund Obamacare, even if that triggers a government shutdown.

He’s done these events across the country, but notably, he’s done them in Dallas and elsewhere in Texas.

Since there’s only one Texas senator who’s not on board with his tactic, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Cruz is explicitly trying to turn up the heat on Cornyn, even as groups such as FreedomWorks and some tea party activists take shots at him.

So, a bit of political cover, one senator to another, would have been welcome.

Cruz, the tea party darling, could have conferred a warm hug and put to rest any unrest. It would have cost him very little. Even if he wants to stay above the fray generally in contested GOP Senate primaries, politicians generally get a pass when it comes to home-state loyalties.

Not that Cornyn necessarily needs that help; he’s drawn no serious opposition in the primary.

Cornyn issued a gracious statement, echoing Cruz’s view that elections ultimately are up to voters, not endorsers. One suspects that steam was coming from his ears when he learned of the snub, however.

As deputy minority leader, Cornyn has done plenty of major favors for Cruz. High on the list: securing a spot for the newcomer on the Judiciary Committee, even though Cornyn is already a senior member and tradition generally precludes putting both senators from a state on that panel when they’re from the same party.

That single act handed Cruz the biggest megaphone imaginable. The fight over gun control alone propelled him to national prominence.

James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, viewed the decision to withhold an endorsement of Cornyn as part of a pattern: “Classic Cruz — establishing an image that he doesn’t play by the same rules as ‘insiders.’”

Freshman senators are supposed to be seen and not heard. Not Cruz. They’re supposed to be deferential to senior colleagues. Not Cruz.

In this instance, protecting the image meant stiff-arming a senior colleague and more-than-occasional ally.

In Dublin, N.H. , GOP donors were oblivious to this drama, sparked in a Q&A session beforehand with reporters. All they saw was an especially engaging version of Cruz’s stump speech, televised live on C-SPAN.

“It is only in Washington, D.C., that it is considered radical to want to live within your means,” he said.

Cruz spoke for 45 minutes and hung around even longer afterward, signing autographs and chatting up activists.

“I’m a little leery of someone who’s been in office as short a time as the current president was” when he ran for the White House, said Donald Ewing, 70, a retired software executive from Meredith. “But this man is very impressive. … He should run. Absolutely.”

Karen Eckilson, 51, from Peterborough, paid close attention to Cruz’s views on Obamacare. That’s a constant headache for her as human resources manager at a small construction firm.

She supported the far more moderate Mitt Romney in the 2012 primary, but easily saw herself backing Cruz next time around.

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About Todd J. Gillman

Career track: I started writing for my junior high school newspaper, the Redcoat. In high school, I freelanced a bit for the local weekly,wrote for the school paper and worked on a weekly public access TV news show that was long on enthusiasm and short on production values. During college at Johns Hopkins University, I interned for The Associated Press and later, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. I started at The Dallas Morning News as an intern after graduating from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government with a master's in public policy, got hired on the Texas & Southwest desk and spent the next several years covering plane crashes, hurricanes and state politics. After a few years as a general assignments reporter on the Metropolitan desk, I moved to the City Hall
beat and later, became the local political writer and columnist. I moved
to the Washington bureau after nearly two years as a Dallas-based national
correspondent.

Most unforgettable experience on the job: Talking my way into Ground
Zero on a rainy day a week or so after Sept. 11, and absorbing the enormity
of it all. My dad used to commute through the Trade Center. A close second
would be my first hurricane, when I was still an intern: driving across
the bridge to Galveston in gales strong enough to push my rental car into
the next lane and tear off the rear license plate, which I keep as a souvenir.

Something people don't know about me: I've been having Tex-Mex withdrawal
ever since moving to Washington.

If I had two spare hours, I would: Go hiking with my wife and kids.

How I define a true Texan: The three natives running around my house
yelling for "mama."

Hometown: Livingston, N.J.

Education: Johns Hopkins University, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government